Brayden Lindrea
A luxury rehabilitation center in Spain has recently added services aimed at treating a relatively new kind of addiction — crypto trading.
The center, called “The Balance,” is a Switzerland-founded wellness center, with its main facility located on the Spanish island of Mallorca along with branches in London and Zurich.
While it has long treated addictions such as alcohol, drugs and behavioral health, it recently began offering services aimed at combatting crypto trading addiction, according to a report from the BBC.
The Feb. 5 report revealed that one of the center’s clients reached out so that he could “wean off crypto” after reportedly pouring in $200,000 worth of trades each week.
The treatment involves a four-week stay that involves therapy, massages and yoga. The bill can be upward of $75,000.
In another part of the world, Castle Craig Hospital — a Scottish-based addiction rehabilitation clinic treating high-adrenaline crypto traders since 2018 — has seen over 100 clients come in with “dangerous” cryptocurrency problems.
In Asia, Diamond Rehabilitation — a Thailand-based wellness center operating since 2019 — has also added services dedicated to cryptocurrency addiction rehab and treatment.
The organization said it approaches rehab through the use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Psychodynamic Theory (PT), as part of its comprehensive, multi-stage approach to help traders overcome their addiction.
It is believed that the euphoric highs and crushing lows of the fast-paced, 24/7 cryptocurrency trading arena have brought in real demand for rehabilitation centers to offer services for trading addicts.
An article by Family Addiction Specialist estimates based on gambling disorder statistics that about 1% cryptocurrency traders will develop a severe pathological addiction, while 10% will experience other problems beyond that of a financial loss.
Symptoms of this addiction, according to Family Addiction Specialist, include constantly checking the prices online — particularly in the middle of the night.
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Brayden Lindrea
Google Cloud reportedly invested $300 million into artificial intelligence (AI) startup firm Anthropic, which also received over $500 million in funds from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried about six months before FTX catastrophically collapsed.
While the $300 million figure was reported by Financial Times on Feb. 4, Anthropic confirmed the investment partnership with Google Cloud on the same day despite not disclosing any figures:
We're excited to use Google Cloud to train our AI systems, including Claude! — Anthropic (@AnthropicAI) February 3, 2023
In the same announcement, Anthropic also confirmed that they previously raised capital from Bankman-Fried and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, among others, in its Series B fundraising round:
“The Series B round was led by Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX. The round also included participation from Caroline Ellison, Jim McClave, Nishad Singh, Jaan Tallinn, and the Center for Emerging Risk Research (CERR).”
The fundraising efforts led by Bankman-Fried took place in April 2022, according to Crunchbase.
A recent post by The New York Times reported that of the $580 million raised, about $530 million came from Bankman-Fried and his former business partners.
But some believe the figure to be even higher.
One FTX creditor believes Bankman-Fried’s stake in the AI company could be as high as $1.1 billion. However, the creditor didn’t elaborate on the figure.
Other members of the Crypto Twitter community are also speculating whether Bankman-Fried’s stake will be used to pay off the massive pile of debt that FTX has accumulated from their recent controversies.
As for the partnership, Anthropic will now utilize Google Cloud’s GPU and TPU clusters to train, expand, and implement its AI chatbox, called “Claude” — similar to that of OpenAI’s ChatGTP.
Google Cloud received about a 10% stake in Anthropic, according to Financial Times.
While it remains to be seen where the bulk of the debt in the FTX bankruptcy case will be sourced from, Bankman-Fried personally pleaded not guilty to all eight fraud and conspiracy-based charges laid against him on Jan. 3.
Bankman-Fried currently remains under house arrest at his parent’s California home until his trial date, which is set for Oct. 2, 2023.
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Savannah Fortis
For many countries, the tax season is right around the corner, which means companies in the crypto industry will need to be ready to help their users comply with local regulations.
On Feb. 6, crypto exchange Binance announced it is launching a tax reporting tool to help users stay on track of their crypto transactions for tax reporting purposes.
According to the announcement, Binance Tax lets its users download a tax summary report which includes any gains or losses which have occurred throughout the year in their Binance account. This includes spot trades, crypto donations and blockchain-based fork rewards.
The company said this comes as a response to a growing number of inquiries from users about their tax liabilities.
Binance Tax is currently in a pilot phase in France and Canada before it extends to other global markets in the Binance ecosystem later in the year. Currently, it is only available for information held on the Binance platforms, however, it says it is looking to expand to integrate with other platforms in the industry in the future.
This comes one month after Binance announced its participation in an association to address compliance with global sanctions.
Over the last year global regulators have tightened their grip on the crypto industry, particularly in the aftermath of the FTX crisis that shook the industry.
In Thailand, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced that it plans to tighten up rules for the crypto industry with a focus on investor protection. Regulators in both South Korea and the Netherlands have targeted exchanges in probes for non-compliance with local standards.
Regulators in the United States have also been eying the crypto scene. The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken had to settle with the treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control regarding compliance violations.
In December the SEC called on firms to disclose exposure to crypto bankruptcies and risks. Meanwhile, a House committee chair reintroduced a bill on crypto innovation, which allows companies to apply for an “enforceable compliance agreement” with federal agencies.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
